Week of February 22-28
2/23/24
Sydney was back in the forge this morning to start her first knife! She jumped right in and is making a chef knife. She did a fantastic job hammering and grinding. Really good finesse work! We got it heat treated, so next time is finish sanding and the handle!
2/23/25
Scott was back this afternoon to continue working on a Bowie knife. Today was grinding day. Next time is finish sanding and handle. And then maybe starting a new damascus project--feather damascus!
2/23/25
Sometimes we become members of our own Guinea Pig Club! Nathan has taken many classes with us over the years. He emailed me and asked if I'd be willing to try making titanium wedding rings for he and his fiancé. I was honest and told him I've never worked with titanium, Jon had never worked with titanium, but I'm willing to try. I just can't guarantee anything. So he came in tonight and brought the material, and we just had so much fun! We cut a strip first and experimented with it. I did a bunch of tests just to see how it moved, basically seeing what we could do to it before it failed. Look at those white sparks!! Then we made 2 of the coolest wedding rings! Nathan said he would have been happy if they looked like cave man rings, instead they're so shiny you could see them from space! So thank you Nathan for being so willing to experiment, and possibly fail, and just going with whatever happened. This was a fun class!
2/25/25
Very fun couple tonight for Railroad Spike Knifemaking! They both made beautiful Tanto style blades.
2/26/25
Chad and his son came in this afternoon to make their first knives. They did a fantastic job! The finish sanding paid off and both of them were super shiny--and of course sharp!
2/26/25
Don and his son are back! Tonight they added to their skills by learning how to weld!
2/27/25
Another fun and busy morning with the Level 2 14-17 yr olds homeschool class! Everyone was at different stages of their projects, but because of the skills they learned at the forge last year and this year, they all work so well independently. Sebastian finished his damascus knife. Beautiful pattern! And then started his short sword. We have a couple of Lord for the Rings inspired sword being made in the class. Sebastian is doing a Bilbo Baggins style sword. Matthew made great progress on his LOTR Elven inspired sword! He got the hammering and most of the grinding done. And Desmond started his cutlass style sword. He was hammering the whole 3 hours! Next time he will work on the tang and then grind. We were missing one today, but he will have no problem catching up.
2/27/25
Kathy brought her son and bonus kids down from Grand Haven to make Railroad Spike Knives this afternoon! They were a lot of fun! One of them has a very justified fear of fire, so it was actually really awesome to see them working in the fire, and being ok with the grinder sparks. The fear is still there, but I'm happy they felt comfortable in the forge to make a fantastically shape knife! And one of them was having some serious back pain, but we were able to work around it and they ended up with beautiful knife too!
We'll pivot however we have to to make the class work for you. You'll still learn something and have fun doing it!
2/27/25
You keep hearing me say what an amazing community of students we have at the forge, and today was another example of this! Matthew is in the Level 2 of the older homeschool class, having taken our Level 1 last year. He also does a lot of woodworking with his Grandfather. Last month I showed Matthew my favorite damascus blade we have. It is one that Jon made, a 72 layer raindrop pattern. He asked me if he could make a knife stand for it for me. Such a thoughtful gesture! I told him that if he comes up with designs he likes, that i would love to have his stands in the forge for sale.
So today he brought me the stand he made for Jon’s knife, with "Combat Ready Art Jon Reeves" hand burned in to it, made from butternut wood and antler. Cue the immediate tears! I told him every good gift should make the person cry. I absolutely love it, and you'll be able to see it on display at the forge. He also brought in 3 designs for knife stands. All of them are amazing!!! They fit a variety of shapes too. So stay tuned for those to be available soon.
Then, I was given the most beautiful rose I have ever seen from the little sister of another one of the older homeschool students. She has has to sit through a year and a half of her brother's blacksmithing classes, and now she is finally turning 9! She asked me if she could come of a class. so she thanked me for scheduling a special class for her with the rose. Again, so thoughtful!
2/28/25
We already have our Scary Cheese Knives. Introducing the Aggressive Cheese Fork! During classes, a lot of you have been admiring the cheese fork that's been on the table. well this is the woman responsible for it. Becky came to us a couple years ago wanting some made, after seeing the idea somewhere else. So Jon made a dozen of them. But then she wanted to learn to make them too. So she and her friend Kathy came in this morning to make many of them. Becky had collected the forks from various sales and stores. We used the induction forge to anneal the forks first, then got creative with designs. Lots of fun making them, and chatting with Becky and Kathy!
2/28/25
Ryan was in this afternoon to make a Billet Knife! When you take the Billet Knife Class, you get to pick which style of blade you'd like to make. Ryan picked a Karambit! He did great, got done hammering out the shape, grinding, hear treating, some finish sanding, and sharpening. Tomorrow he's back to put the handle material on.
2/28/25
Sydney was back tonight to finish up her billet knife! It is beautiful!! So shiny!
